Patiënten over arbocuratieve samenwerking

Objective

Investigating patient experiences on the collaboration between occupational physicians and treating physicians, and clarifying why this type of cooperation is more difficult to get off the ground than would normally be expected.

Design

Qualitative focus group research.

Method

Focus group interviews were conducted with patients who were on long-term disability leave and had problems returning to the workforce. We asked them about the importance of the collaboration between occupational and curative physicians, and asked their opinions on what they believed these respective physcians’ roles should be.

Results

Patients believe that securing support from their treating physicians when there are differences in opinion with their occupational physicians is the most important benefit of occupational-curative collaboration. For fear of potential negative consequences, they themselves want to exert as much control as possible on the exchange of information between their treating physicians and their occupational physicians. The patient primarily sees the treating physician as protector; the occupational physician supports the patient in reintegration by mediating between employee and company.

Conclusion

A physician’s predominant perspective of the cooperation between occupational and curative physicians is a clinical one; the emphasis being on the establishment of adequate diagnoses and their treatments. Patients, however, view the cooperation between their occupational and curative physicians from a strategic perspective in which their own interests are the key decisive factors. In daily practice, this might explain the reason behind patients being more reserved about occupational-curative cooperation, in comparison with physicians. It is advisable that patients not only be asked their consent, but that they are also granted a consciously active role in the collaboration between their occupational and curative physicians as well as in their own occupational reintegration process.

Conflict of interest: The chair for Insurance Medicine of Prof. J.K. Anema is supported by the National Employee Benefits Scheme. Financial support: none declared.